Friday, 28 March 2014

It's May 2006 and
there I was, in the overwhelmingly ornate setting of St John's Co-Cathedral in
Valletta, gazing around at totally over-the-top Baroque baroqueness, at paintings
of holy knights with cynical eyes, of saints like wise and grizzled old
men, and angels resembling pretty pudgy-faced teens without the acne, and a What If sneaked into my head.

What If one of those long ago artists - Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio,
perhaps - saw an angel whose features were so far away from his accepted norm of
male beauty he had to paint them.

What If Paul saw a passing stranger in a crowd and that man had the exact same
face?

It took a while
before I fashioned the What If into a
story, but that was the initial spark of an idea that eventually became Caravaggio's
Angel, and this is the face that Caravaggio and Paul saw:

The unknown model
hadn't been the plump-faced pretty androgyne so often featured in Caravaggio's
work. By the standards of male beauty in the artist's time, the man was not
handsome. But the proud-boned features framed in a shoulder-length tangle of
black hair were real. Eyes so blue their color seared, gazed from beneath
frowning brows arched like a falcon's wing. The level glare was fixed on a
point above the viewer's line of sight, and Paul always fancied he could read
accusation there. Why did you allow this…
The full, perfectly shaped mouth was set in anger and sorrow. In his
clenched fists he held a cream-colored robe, splashed with blood. Gilded by
diffused light, wings of iridescent black feathers were mantled, protecting the
robe or whoever had worn it.

This was no
adoring angel, soulful and acquiescent to God's will. That fierce gaze
challenged as well as mourned.

~ * ~

A seventeenth-century artwork, a portfolio of canvases and a
gorgeous man no one seems to notice— Add in a jealous brother and a
scheming stranger, and Paul has inherited trouble.

Saturday, 8 March 2014

I've been
cover-photo hunting. My two main sources are the Royalty Free site, Dreamstime, and my own photo
files - of which I have far too many. This is the woman who, on her first visit
to Malta, took a sea cruise around the island and photographed three-quarters
of the coastline. If my new camera's battery hadn't run out, I'd've recorded
the whole of it. The limestone strata of cliffs and caves and tiny inlets were
fascinating… *Ahem* sorry - I digress. By the way, if you click on the pic you'll see a larger version...

A Manifold Cover by Fiona Pickles

Over the
years, I've been amazingly lucky with my covers - or rather, my cover artists. Notably
Reese Dante, Meredith Russell, and now Totally Bound's Posh Gosh. Then there
are the distinctive and stylish covers designed by Fiona Pickles for my titles
with Manifold Press. Because, let's face it, Covers Are Important.

A cover
needs to catch the eye, reel in the potential buyer close enough for them to read
the blurb - the bait and the hook [do I have to mention how much I, as a
writer, struggle with those blurbs?].

Of course, there's sometimes an added complication. It's a fact of life that certain models are very popular and frequently turn up on other people's
covers. I've occasionally had to regretfully turn away from what would have
been the perfect set of features, to carry on the search.

A Kouros Books Cover by Meredith Russell

When it
comes to my self-published titles under the Kouros Books label, Meredith Russell has created most of them.
Others, where I've been able to find the perfect photo which didn't need any additional
tweaking other than the title and my name in a generic font, I've made myself.
That helps to keep the costs down, as it's always a gamble as to whether a
rereleased book will sell enough to cover its expenses. But that bullet has to be bitten and every book, regardless of how many times it's relaunched into the unsuspecting world, deserves the best cover you can devise by whatever means.

My DIY Cover from a Dreamstime Photo

If you're lucky enough to find the image that perfectly reflects the story you've written, the way I did for my ghost story, The Camerman's Tale, then you count your blessings and buy it.

Of course,
browsing through all those photos on Dreamstime has another purpose.
Inspiration. There's far more on there - and the other Royalty Free sites -
than just[!] a handsome face and rippling pecs. There are mystical places,
atmospheric and beautiful places, fine animals, mythical beasts, other worlds
and galaxies. You never know what scene, what face, will start a whole pack of
plot ideas.

Sunday, 2 March 2014

Malta first appeared on my horizon in books on the
archaeology of the Mediterranean. Some of the oldest Neolithic temples yet
discovered are there, including the Hypogeum, an underground ritual complex
unparalleled anywhere in the world.

Upper Barrakka Gardens and Bastion

Then I discovered Dorothy Dunnett's
Lymond Chronicles, a series of sweeping historical novels. One, The Disorderly
Knights, was largely set on Malta, and played against the background of the
Great Siege, when the Ottoman Empire besieged the Knights Hospitallers of St
John. That was it for me. Not only was I hooked on Lymond, that flawed and
fascinating character, I was also snared by Malta itself and the breathtaking
spread of unbroken history of the tiny collection of islands.

Foyer of Asti Guest House

So, when I decided to spend part of my retirement lump
sum on travel, Malta was right at the top of my list. An online search found
the Asti Guest House, what looked to be a cheap and cheerful B&B on
Valletta's St Ursula Street. Air Malta had a good deal on flights, so despite
my deep fear of flying, I was off.

Old Yellow bus

Malta turned out to be everything I’d dreamed of, and
more. Valletta, Marsaxlokk, Rabat and Mdina captivated me. The old, mostly individually
owned and run yellow buses seemed to be held together by paint, rosaries and
prayers, were driven with insouciant disregard for the mostly unsurfaced roads
and other road users, and the Maltese were unfailingly cheerful and friendly.

Mdina

When I returned to Malta the next year, walking
through the gate in Valletta’s massive walls was like coming home. That was my
last visit for some years. I went back for a third time in November 2012, to
find some changes. By now Malta was part of the EU, the yellow buses had been
replaced by a fleet of Arriva buses, some the bendy sub-species, and were in a
rather drab blue and white livery, and most of the roads were surfaced. But the
magic still remained. It still felt as if I was returning to a familiar and
much loved place. I'll be going back, needless to say, when I can afford it and when I can screw up enough courage to walk onto a plane...

Marsaxlokk Harbour

Apologies for a travelogue of a post, I could rave for a long time about Malta. I'll spare the
reader my overenthusiastic burblings, and just say that plot ideas leapt
out at every corner. One of them was inspired by Caravaggio's paintings in the
Oratory of St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. The title appeared at the same
time—Caravaggio's Angel. It took another six years for me to start working on
the idea, over a year to finally finish, polish and submit it. Now, just short
of eight years later, Caravaggio's Angel is to be released this month by Totally
Bound.

It can be preordered from March 18th, will be available on their website on March 28th, and on general release from April 25th. Link HERE

To finish up, if you want to visit Malta, and would like to stay in a basic and scrupulously clean B&B in an old Maltese house, I recommend the Asti GH. If you want something less basic, then try the Castille Hotel - it used to be a palace!

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